A Blind Test At Work By A Redheaded eGeek

eGeek – Obviously I’m talking about ME because I have red hair and yesterday I explained about the whole eGeek thing. I’m sure you’ve read that post by now. (winking at you)

At Work – Apparently I was at my place of employment.

A Blind Test – Hmmmm…Was I testing blind people at work? What in the world is my job if I was testing blind people at work?!!!

I think we should start at the beginning because I might be confusing you.

Blindness and Blind People

Are you blind? I mean, are you physically unable to see with your eyes? There are quite a few very famous and/or talented people that are blind, such as:

Andrea Bocelli

Stevie Wonder

Ray Charles

Louis Braille

Helen Keller

Jose Feliciano

Ronnie Milsap

I bet you’ve heard about most, if not all, of those famous blind people. I’m always in awe of their great accomplishments. Their success was double tough to obtain because they couldn’t see the world around them. I CAN see with my physical eyes. I do wear glasses to have crisp vision like many people who are older like me, but I can still see great.

A Blind Test

There is a hallway at work that is probably ten feet wide and not very long with double doors at each end. Well, I have been working until 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. each night lately and most people in the office are gone already. It was past time for me to go home and I was pretty tired. So I was walking down this ten foot wide empty hallway and I thought, “I wonder how it would feel to be walking blind.”

I know I’m strange, but bear with my uniqueness. 😉

So I go back to the end of the hallway and count how many steps to the other end. I was able to take thirteen steps, reach out, grasp the door handle and pull it open. I turned around and walked back towards the other door and recounted my steps to make sure it was really only thirteen. Sure enough, it takes thirteen steps for me to get from one end of the hallway to the other end.

Having established exactly how many steps were required to get to the end of the hallway and knowing that the office was practically empty (only three of us were still working), I decided to try being blind. I closed my eyes and started walking. Taking my first two steps was easy, but when I took the third step in TOTAL DARKNESS, I felt unsure even though I KNEW that the hallway was thirteen steps long.

I kept walking, but very cautiously. It almost felt like I had lost my freedom.

By the time I had reached the eleventh step, I had to stop. I felt like I was going to hit the door any second, so I opened my eyes. Since my eyes had been closed and I felt unsure of my steps, each step had become shorter. I was much further from the door than I had anticipated. With my eyes open it took six more steps to reach the doors at the end of the hallway.

So what do you think the redheaded eGeek did next? I had to try it again. I turned around and faced the other end of the hallway. This time I was a little more sure of myself in the darkness, but by the eighth step I felt I might run into something again.

I stopped, but kept my eyes closed.

While standing in the hallway with my eyes closed, I tried to get acclimated to the walls on all four sides of the hallway. My mind still could recall the texture, color and relative distance from one end to the other end. I knew that I was completely alone and no one was going to run into me nor would I run into anything else since the hallway was completely empty. Obviously, I had NOTHING to fear, so why couldn’t I just walk boldly forward thirteen steps and get to the other end?

Fear.

One hundred percent fear of the unknown.

With my eyes closed, my physical world became shrouded in darkness. No matter how much I wanted to boldly walk without fear, the darkness was overwhelming and held me back. I had several choices to make at this point:

Would I open my eyes, tell myself it was a stupid idea and forget it?

Would I open my eyes, tell myself it was a great test and go back to my office?

Would I open my eyes, go back to the end of the hallway, tell myself if was a great test and I needed to succeed at getting to the other end with my eyes closed because there was nothing to fear?

I chose #3.

Standing at the end of the hallway, I closed my eyes, told myself this was only a temporary condition and that nothing was in the hallway that would hurt me. Taking a deep breath and giving myself one last vote of encouragement that I could walk blindly forward to the other end of the hallway, I started walking.

A few traits that become quite evident after you get to know me are…I am very patient, inquisitive, fascinated by learning and extremely determined. After taking my twelfth step at a regular pace in a darkened world, I reached out my hand, took another step and felt the handle of the door. I had accomplished my goal of walking blindly with confidence and determination to get from one end of the hallway to the other end in the darkness. Indeed, I had succeeded.

Every day most of us walk blindly in a lighted world because we are overcome with a fear of failing, pain, heartache, unhappiness and many other reasons. We are blind even though we can see everything around us quite clearly. Since we can’t see what is going to happen in the future, we have to just believe in happiness and prosperity for tomorrow. The darkness that blocks our vision of the future has to be respected, ignored and challenged in order to fulfill our dreams. How we manage our fear of the darkness is really the key and only you can decide if you will stop walking or if you will boldly step forward.

Reader Interactions

Comments

I believe there is a large difference in those who were born with a disability, such as blindness vs becoming disabled due to disease, accident or whatever the situation may be. If you are born with a disability you don’t know anything else. Nothing has been taken away, therefore your fear factor is very different than if the ability to to see, we’ll use your example, was suddenly lost.

I think the key word is “adaptation”. The ability to suddenly change gears to fit the needs of the situation we currently find ourselves in. The more adept we become in this process, the easier it is to find the courage and strength to make it through each day at the highest level we are personally able to achieve. The hallway will become shorter and the steps will be taken with greater confidence. I hope that you and I and anyone else who feels the way we do will be be able to assimilate this concept into our daily activities and ultimately overcome our fears. Into the darkness we will no longer walk, but be lead by a bright, shining light.

LOL Of all the people that read my blog, if I had to pick someone other than me that would have performed my strange experiment, I would have guess you! 😉 I think it is because great minds think alike! 😀 Just saying! LOL

I cut the lights out in the kitchen, knew Tom was asleep with the door closed so there was no light. However being me, I knew where the door was because I had walked through it hundreds of times!! Duh, no fear, but I just plowed right into that chandelier lamp. I fell right into it and cut my arm on the crystals. I have bruises galore.

How easy it was to deviate from my course in the dark with such a short distance. Life is the same – where there is fear there is no faith. Having faith is to always step into the dark knowing you will not fall because you place your faith in that eternal being , Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. If you do not keep your eye on Him, then you will deviate off course in a short distance and walk in fear and fall. Just as I was so sure where that door was, I was off just 6 inches.

I love the Geek in you and I do know the fear and horror you must be plowing through now. The only way to get to the finish line is to hold tight to what I have taught you and stay determined to find success at your goal. I’m here for you when you need me and I love you.

You need to be more careful walking around and if you are going to do my experiment, don’t do it in your home because you will definitely run into the furniture.

Referring to life you said, “Where there is fear there is no faith” and that is true. However, I have a good reason to fear and to be overwhelmed. You seriously cannot fathom what I go through on a daily basis. I seriously believe that you think I can just pray the PTSD away in the same way that Moses parted the sea. Take my word for it – that isn’t going to happen. Maybe other people pray hard enough that they bring about a miracle, but that is other people. God gave me enough sense to know that I need to have the professional help that is guaranteed to get rid of the rest of my PTSD symptoms so that I can reclaim my life. That is exactly what I am doing now and I am determined to put it all behind me. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and believe me, I’m not going to take my eyes off it for one second. I am not blind anymore and I can’t hardly wait to get the rest of “me” back.

In Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, March 4, 1933, he said, “. . . the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

In my own life I have learned to face my fear and do it anyway. It is the only way I know of moving forward and achieving my dream. I refuse to let fear put me into paralyzes and hold me back from living the life I have envisioned for myself.